


How the Other Half Lives

by randi2204



Series: Bent Not Broken [4]
Category: The Magnificent Seven (TV)
Genre: Gen, Genderswap, Magic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-11
Updated: 2018-06-11
Packaged: 2019-05-20 19:50:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14900883
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/randi2204/pseuds/randi2204
Summary: The Rom have left town, but that doesn't mean they didn't leave a little surprise behind...





	How the Other Half Lives

**Author's Note:**

> **Disclaimer:** The pretty cowboys belong to MGM, Mirisch,  & Trilogy, not to me, woe.

There were, Chris figured, two trails that led to this particularly thorny situation.

One was that there was some kind of malevolent _magic_ floating around town, and no, _magic_ wasn’t too wrong an explanation, because _something_ had sure as hell changed Ezra and Vin into women, and there was no getting around it.

The second was that Buck just didn’t know when to quit, even when common sense said he ought.

In the past, Chris had often both lamented and lauded Buck’s bullheadedness.  Buck had been the one to call Chris as stubborn as ten Missouri mules, but when you got right down to it, Buck was just as bad.

Especially when it involved women, and this situation so clearly did.

The thing of it was, whatever spell those Rom had thrown at Vin and Ezra to change them into women had turned them into the kind of women that turned men’s heads.  And while Buck liked _all_ kinds of women, the ones that were beautiful turned him into a dog – the kind of fool that panted after a woman, certain that they would find him irresistible and swoon into his arms so he could carry them to bed.

Come to think of it, calling Buck a dog was kind of an insult to dogs.

So Buck had been panting after Vin – even though he _knew_ Vin was really a man – and Vin had finally had enough of it.  It was a wonder that he hadn’t pulled his gun; he’d been about to the other night.  (The only reason he hadn’t was because Mary had warned him that wearing the heavy gun belt over the dress she’d lent him would tear the fabric, and Vin was just too much of a gentleman to ruin something a lady had given him.)

But Vin’s patience – not nearly as long as it had been since Mary had shoved him into a corset – had broken this morning.  He’d pushed Buck out of his chair in front of the saloon, pulled a knife from his boot, and put it to Buck’s throat.  “You say one more word, Buck – just one! – and I will stick you.”

It was a threat that, if Buck had been in his right mind and Vin in his right body, Buck would have taken as being in deadly earnest.  The problem was that neither of them were right, and Vin’s female voice didn’t carry a threat nearly as well as his male voice would.

And Buck just couldn’t quit running his mouth.  “There’s no call to put a knife to my throat, darlin’, I’m happy to lay here underneath you.”

Chris had stood from the other chair when Vin had pulled the knife, but now he was of a mind to let Vin do what he wanted. 

By all rights, Vin should have gutted him right there, but he didn’t.  His face turned bright red, and he pressed his knife harder against Buck’s throat so that a thin line of blood trickled down.  “You think this is so fuckin’ funny, me bein’ a woman.  Well, I wish the Rom had gotten _you_ instead of _me_ , so I could be laughin’ like hell at _you_!”

Of course, whatever magic had been hanging around chose that moment to act.

_I should be getting used to this by now,_ Chris thought, kneeling down beside Buck’s prone form, and sighed, because how in the _hell_ was someone supposed to get used to watching his friends turn into women in front of his eyes?

Buck’s mustache had been the first thing to go, rippling away in an instant, and then all the other changes happened – longer hair, feminine features, breasts pushing out his shirt a little, trousers gaping at his waist; all the things that Chris had seen take over Vin and Ezra.

The change had knocked Buck out, and as soon as the tingle of magic curled around him, Vin flung himself away, skirts askew.  He kept a firm grip on the knife, though, and his eyes were wild.  “What the hell?”

“Fuckin’ magic,” Chris muttered, and rubbed a hand over his face.  “Go find Mary,” he told Vin, sounding resigned even to himself.  “See if she’s got any dresses that can be let out to fit him.”

Vin scrambled to his feet, skirts falling around his legs so he was decent once more.  When he started toward the _Clarion_ office, he was walking fast, but after only a few strides, he slowed down to a more ladylike pace.

Chris spared a moment to wonder just how Vin had gotten into the corset today – and _why_ – but got no further before Buck started to come to.  The longest lashes he’d ever seen on a body, man or woman, fluttered, and then he was looking into Buck’s familiar blue eyes and familiar grin, set in a less familiar face.  If he hadn’t known better, he’d have sworn this was Buck’s sister.

“Hey stud,” Buck said, then blinked, brow crinkling in confusion at the sound of his own voice.  “Am I imaginin’…”

“Nope,” Chris replied.  “Damn magic is like a plague.”  He helped Buck sit up, head only just coming up to his shoulder.  Maybe Mary’s dress wouldn’t have to be let out as much as he’d thought.

Buck’s attention seemed to be caught up in feeling out the changes in his body – including pulling out the front of his shirt and staring down.  “Well now,” he said, and he didn’t sound as… disbelieving as Ezra had when he’d woken up, or as angry as Vin.

_In fact,_ Chris thought, _it sounds like he might be downright…_ pleased _by it all_.  And just like that, he understood.  This might be the greatest kind of prize for Buck, who put such store by women, who cared for them so much.  He cleared his throat, just to make sure Buck remembered he was in public before he thought about doing something really indecent here on the street.  “Guess you’re gonna see how the other half lives.”

The grin Buck turned on him was blinding.  “Oh, you’d better believe it, Chris!”  Then, just as suddenly, his face crumpled in disappointment.  “Oh, hell!”

“What?”

Buck’s eyes were big and miserable and pooling with tears.  “If I’m like this… who’s gonna be takin’ care of all the ladies?”

That, Chris decided, was his cue to beat a hasty retreat.

***   
May 31, 2018

**Author's Note:**

> A fill for the [fic_promptly](https://fic-promptly.dreamwidth.org/) prompt [Author’s choice, author’s choice, getting to see how the other half lives.](https://fic-promptly.dreamwidth.org/68494.html?thread=3409550#cmt3409550)


End file.
